At Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds (SHPG), the goal is as clear as ice — to be the best in the business.
And that means being a global leader; an integral part of winter testing programmes for the world’s automotive, component and tyre manufacturers.
"We’ve got big aspirations," general manager customers Steve Gould says.
The upcoming season could be a record in the time he has been with the business, which is the only operation of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
With that brought a sense of excitement for Mr Gould and operations manager Tom Harry, who is preparing for his first operational season.
After the challenges of Covid and the border controls in place last year, it was "almost like the shackles have come off", Mr Gould said.
Last year, every customer arriving in New Zealand had to obtain a special visa exemption and it was good to have that behind them.
Coupled with supply-chain issues easing, the potential was there to beat the previous best year of 2019.
Demand this year was across the board. There were some big bookings from some of the traditional names, plus there were relative newcomers to the industry, Mr Gould said.
Some of the really big customers were from Europe and the United States, while Japan was up to about five customers, whereas there had only been one Japanese customer in the past few years. There were several customers from India where safety standards had been introduced.
The biggest driver was the pressure on the industry and one of the biggest factors was legislative pressure.
The United States and Europe, for example, had staged emissions plans and every year those plans got "a little bit tighter".
Those targets were coming at industry fast — there were companies saying they had 12 models to get to market in five years — and any way to speed up development was valuable. And that was where SHPG fitted "in to the puzzle", he said.
There was the core North American winter testing and, by also testing in the southern hemisphere, they got "two bites of the cherry" — four winters in two years, which allowed time to get the development done.
So much was about timing; there were customers with projects who would not get on the plane to return home until it was done. But that was all part of the excitement for the SHPG team.
In 2019, one customers brought out two sets of engineers so work could continue around the clock.
While coping with the demand, the SHPG team had to remain conscious of the key pillars of its business — site security, customer confidentiality and safety — Mr Gould said.
To obtain that goal of being best in the world, it had to focus on security and confidentiality aligned with its growth pattern.
Traditionally, it had all been very secretive and, while that still continued, there was now a lot more hype pre-production.
In 2021, Ford reported how enthusiasts made almost 45,000 reservations in less than 48 hours after its all-electric F-150 Lightning was officially unveiled.
Many people pre-ordered and, for those companies, they wanted their customers to see the lengths they went to when it came to manufacturing that vehicle.
Part of that was the New Zealand story, featuring the pre-production testing amid the spectacular mountain range.
Mr Harry has worked in the snow industry for nearly 12 years. Previously, he managed the Rainbow Ski Area and, when an opportunity arose at SHPG , he jumped at it.
It was a very unique business, very tech focused and it offered challenges that did not apply in the ski industry. Plus it was such an exciting industry to be part of, he said.
Sourcing staff began in February and Mr Harry said there was about a 70% return rate this year. The bulk of staff would come on board today.
This year, including contractors, staff numbers would be just shy of 80. The season would run from late June into mid or late August.
Over the summer, money was spent on repairs and maintenance, capex projects and some developments. A lot of the spend was based on customer requirements and, as safety was such a big focus for SHPG, security fencing, safety barriers and work on the access road. Staff over summer was just five.
For Mr Gould, that off-season did give him time to think. A lot was logistics based, but customer focused around the end of May.
Mr Gould said SHPG had worked very hard in the past few years to create a really good place for people to work.
Health and the wellbeing of staff was a real focus, including time off to get off the mountain. Many of the staff lived on-site and they needed them to be fresh.
There was also a drive to support local businesses; its radio system was provided through Queenstown Radio Services while "top-of-the-line" uniforms came from New Zealand company Cactus.
Extensive snow-making facilities helped fill the void in any snow-short years, and Mr Gould was confident it could still operate without natural snow — it was the temperature that was needed.
Last year had the biggest volume of snow Mr Gould had seen and they were "running out of places to put it".
Tests were completed on a very hard-packed base layer and industry standards had to be met, so while 20cm of new snow might sound great, it had to be removed.
A large part of Mr Gould’s role was "looking outside the square", including creating a list of reasons for potential customers to come to New Zealand and ensuring all the boxes to tick were "an easy yes".
"Part of what I do is try and get hold of those pinch-points and figure out solutions before they become problems," he said.
That included having charter flights on stand-by this year before logistics "came to the party".
Everything had to be thought about and delivered to the customer so that it was easy for them.
"A lot goes into that thought process of just making it easy. There’s always something that comes up," he said.
And he was full of praise for owner George Gould, a Canterbury businessman who was very involved with the business. The pair talked regularly and he had brought a very professional approach to the business.
Mr Harry said the SHPG crew were very well resourced and supported by Mr Gould and, while it was a big role, nothing was unmanageable.
Steve Gould said he would be lying if he said there were no stressful days, but fortunately he had seen most of the issues that could arise.
"We’ve thought about how we deal with those and weather events," he said.
Motorsport-trained St John paramedics were stationed at SHPG during the season and the team was "chuffed" to have them.
The ambulance was driven around the operation at times so customers could see it was a "proper" ambulance.
"It’s the level we want to be at," Mr Gould said.
SHPG also hosted training for local St John crews on snow and ice, which was a way of giving back to the community.
A security guard was also stationed there 24/7 and engineers had to show identification every time they came up the hill.
SHPG was very grateful of the community support the operation garnered, from local contractors to accommodation providers.
Customers coming to SHPG created an estimated 10,500 to 12,500 bed nights in Wanaka, Queenstown and the surrounding area each year.
Mr Gould said there were proving grounds in the northern hemisphere, but none provided what SHPG and the wider area offered: "a bunkbed in Alaska cooking your own noodles".
SHPG has 17 test areas and its site encompasses 400ha. Asked whether expansion was a possibility, Mr Gould said it would probably have to be looked at, within its boundaries.
Because it was at the leading edge of development, it needed to keep developing. That all came back to providing safe courses for testing and ensuring that when customers turned up, "they can do what they need to do".
"We need to keep that evolution going. That for sure is going to lead to new tracks and development within existing tracks. It’s a constant evolution," he said.
Mr Gould admitted there was also a sense of relief when the last customer left for the season.
"For me, there’s a real sense of achievement when a customer has completed what they want to do."
They went home with a product ready for production "and you kind of feel you’re part of that journey", he said.
Talk within the wider region about the area becoming a tech hub was something that excited Mr Gould who hoped, in some way, that SHPG could be part of that.
"There’s a real conscious effort to look outside of tourism in this region ... we’re quite excited if that was to push on in this area. If we were involved in that and help bring some more of these people to the area, that would be really exciting for us too," he said.
